


Christmas on the Hephaestus

by Samiskindacool



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Like from the first couple episodes, Pre-Canon, Season 2 spoilers, wolf 359 secret santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 15:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5503700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Samiskindacool/pseuds/Samiskindacool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My Wolf 359 Secret Santa Present for confusedbluesky on tumblr!</p><p>It's the first Christmas on the Hephaestus, and the crew is handling it in very different ways. Featuring Carols, "Hot Chocolate", and Messages Home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. HERA

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GalaxyOwl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyOwl/gifts).



The commander is someone that you could call very festive. HERA had learned this very early on, when Eiffel nearly had a panic attack over a few plastic spiders that were decorating the communications room at the end of October. When December rolled around, and it wasn't a surprise to anyone in the small crew that there were paper chains and snowflakes beginning to pop up around the Hephaestus. Eiffel had actually helped with a few of them, using it as an excuse to slack off.

HERA found this fascinating. The people at the testing facility hadn't even thought to mention holidays to her, and yet here she was, watching the Lieutenant Commander hum tunes to herself while she looked over logs in the bridge. The AI's curiosity finally won, and she began to ask the questions she had been eating inside her.

"Commander, wh-what is that you're humming?"

The commander looked up, her eyebrows furrowing a bit before looking up to the intercom's speaker. "Oh, it's just an old Christmas song. Was it bothering you?"

"N-no, I was just wonder-dering," There was a small pause, as HERA debated continuing. Minkowski's posture hadn't changed, it was still slightly hunched as she flipped through papers, making note of certain sections. Maybe obtaining a few more answers wouldn't hurt...

"What is it called?" The AI's voice asked faintly.

"Hmm?" Minkowski turned to the speaker. She came to the realization she was hunched over, and sat up straight, before attaching her pen to the magnet she had sticky-tacked to her desk a few months ago. Her attention went back to the speaker, as she awaited for HERA to repeat herself.

A bit louder this time, and with a bit more courage, HERA asked again, "The song you we-were humming, what was-as it called?"

The commander smiled, replying in a sing-songed voice, that HERA could only assume were lyrics "Petit Papa Noël"

As soon as the commander finished her reply, HERA began to scour her files for the song. It wasn't long (only 0.3 seconds) before she found an .mp3 and began to play it in the engine room for herself.


	2. Eiffel

As the 25th approached, Eiffel grew more and more... resentful, I guess is the word. Not because he didn't like Christmas; Doug was all for Saint Nick and what he stood for. What bugged him was more how his birthday was always shoved together with the stupid holiday. Everybody was so wrapped up in the holiday season that nobody remembered his special day. God, what he would give to be born on some other day.

His mind went back to his childhood, and Eiffel shuddered as he remembered all the joint Christmas/Birthday cards, all the years he got to open a present from under the tree early as a "birthday" present.

The resentment is more directed towards him.

.  
..  
...

Wow, that sounded really self-loathing now that it was put into words.

He sighed as he stirred his "hot chocolate", which tasted more like the seaweed coffee than chocolate, as he more or less accepted that nobody was going to remember his birthday, they would be too caught up in the holidays, and he might as well enjoy it.

Maybe he could pretend that the Christmas celebrations were just a big birthday party. Or would that be too vain?

.  
..  
...

It couldn't hurt.


	3. Hilbert

Hilbert. That was his name this time. Alexander Hilbert. Alexander Hilbert did not like the holidays, he was not religious, and did not miss home. Hilbert did not go to deep space because it was his dream, Hilbert did it for science. 

Selberg did. Selberg had loved the holidays, spending it where he dreamed of being, with people he trusted and who trusted him. But that made it too hard. It is far too hard to put the virus into friends, to watch them slowly become less 'them' and more 'sick'. The virus consumed them, and he remembered watching them cough up blood, making their lips too red compared to their pale white faces.

What did he like? Not the acts he played, like Selberg, like Hilbert, but /him/. It had been so long since he heard him called by his name, the one his mother gave him. It had been even longer since he spent the holidays with his family, his sisters, his annoying cousins, and the teasing aunts and uncles. What he would give to spend Christmas with them...

But he had a job to do.

He pressed the button on the intercom, sending a signal to the communications room.

"Eh, what's up Doc?"

"Officer Eiffel, if you could please come down to the medical office, Commander Minkowski is requesting that I attempt to create eggnog, and I need someone to give it a taste."

Alexander Hilbert could not have friends.

It made it too difficult.


	4. Minkowski

The commander didn't get homesick often. She was living her dream out here (if you brush aside the lazy communications officer, and painfully cheery doctor). But the worst time was around two weeks before Christmas.

This would be Renee's first Christmas that she didn't spend with her husband since she got married, and here she was in the communications room, taking a breath before pressing the button labeled "RECORD". 

"This is Lieutenant-Commander Renee Minkowski of the USS Hephaestus, sending a message to Mr. David Koudelka on Earth. Message start," Her voice was full of power and authority, he called it her 'bossy voice'. However, she got less assertive, and more relaxed after her into piece was out of the way. "Oh wow, I hope this can reach you by Christmas. It was a lot harder to get Officer Eiffel out of the comms room than you'd think, for how much he slacks off. You'd think he'd be excited to not have to work..." Her brows furrowed and her hands began to gesture as she spoke. "Apparently, this is his space, and I'd just ruin his organizational system. As if he has one, honestly, this place is a pig sty."

Her eyes glanced down to the sticky note that she had brought in with her, filled with the points she wanted to say while she had the chance. "I'm getting off topic." She took a breath, and her voice went quieter. "I miss you. It's weird to not have you blasting carols when I get home, and our station AI doesn't have much of a selection on hand."

A few moments of silence passed, before she continued. "I had some other things I wanted to say, but reading it over now, it's all just fluff. Have a merry Christmas. I love you." Her fingers hit the button again, stopping the recording. She sighed, wishing that they could get incoming messages from civilians under her breath, before giving HERA the order to send it off.


End file.
